Introduction

The responsibility of nurses in dealing with patients is guided by registered nursing standards that were updated in 2016 (Nursing and Midwifery board of Australia, 2016, p.1). The standards are meant to ensure that professionalism is upheld by the nurses. Further, through the standards the safety of the nurses and that of patients is also enhanced. The standards are organized in 8 principles, which support effective nursing practice (Nursing and Midwifery board of Australia, 2016, p.1).  It is identified that without embracing some code of conducts the patient are at risk of getting poor medication. Further, the principles ensure that nurses avoid negligence in their work and uphold ethical standards in course of their duty. The paper discusses how as a nurse safety and quality healthcare can be accomplished during placement period.

Ways to Enhance Safety and Quality Health Care During Nursing Placement

Nursing profession error has potential to cause considerable risks to the patients including possible deaths that can be prevented. Some of the safety issues that are important to nurse include preventing medical errors, infections, falls, missed care and patient handoffs (Nursing and Midwifery board of Australia, 2016, p.1). It is the role of all nurses to ensure that standard safety care is offered to patient as identified in nursing profession standards. A nurse on placement needs to ensure that he supports a culture that embraces safety for the workers and patients. The core value for the approach is to ensure that there is sustained commitment by the nurse to push for safety concerns as opposed to competing goals (Ulrich & Kear, 2014, p.449). The nurse requires adapting and instilling culture of trust, openness, transparency and continuous learning from past errors (Guest Editorial, 2014, p.160). Safety culture also ensures that appropriate procedures are followed when handling patients to prevent infections especially on open wounds.

Proper communication also forms an important basis for improving safety in medical centers for patients. Nurses need to communicate with one another especially when they are handing over shifts to their colleagues (Kieft, et.al, 2014, p.4). Through filling of occurrence books before end of shift it makes it possible for nurses who come in for next session to understand demands of their patients. The resultant is minimization of possible wrong diagnosis of patient. The communication further offers information about possible reaction of patients to certain types of drugs. Therefore, incidences of allergic reactions of patients are reduced due to proper communication. Further, nurses require sharing concerns about unsafe situations in their working conditions to make it easy to collect such errors. In addition, when moving patients and there is need for assistance the nurses require to be open and ask their colleagues to help. Actually, communication enhances team work where the nurses are able to share their experiences and ways to improve their service delivery to their patients.

Further, nursing quality and safe treatment is also achieved through nurses engaging their patients to understand their diversified needs (Wood, 2016, p.1). The process is accomplished through asking patients about their concerns and how they are responding to treatment. The engagement further offers a chance for the nurse to understand issues such as drugs that some patients are allergic to. In addition, the interaction allows the nurse to understand family history of patients, which is essential in identifying appropriate diagnosis (Arries, 2014, p.3). Engagement with families of patients is also important to ensure that consent is given when conducting procedures such as surgeries.  The overall impact is a feeling of confidence of patient on the nurse and this improves their relationship. Additionally, errors are prevented through learning from near misses or accidents that occurred in hospitals (Wood, 2016, p.1). Further, the learning empowers the nurses to adopt safe working environment and report incidences that pose danger to the patient. Through a collaborative effort of the identified measures safe and quality care is accomplished.

Conclusion

As a nurse on placement, following guidelines established in nursing standards of 2016 is essential in upholding professionalism and guaranteeing patient safety. Safety of patient that is identified as one of the principle can be enhanced by a nurse in placement through first establishing a culture of safety. The nurse needs to guide the patients and colleagues on need to enhance personal safety. Communication is also essential where a nurse need to share experiences with his colleagues and solve problems as a team. Further, engagement of a nurse with patients improves confidence and allows identification of issues such as medical family history. Actually, a nurse who upholds the principle of safety reduces possible infections, inadequate medication, medication errors and allergic reactions of patients.